UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Continuous harassment of teachers with government inaction 

Dear friends,

 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the case of defamation and intimidation involving five teachers by the school authority after they reported to the Presidential Investigation Commission the corrupt management practices at their school’s facilities (See further in detail: UA-114-2005). This updates is about the tree teachers namely Mr. S.A. Wickramasuriya, Mr. S.J.M. Jayasundara and Mr. R.M.D. Rathnayake, who are among the five victimized teachers. According to the teachers, they are still suffering from the continuous harassment, threats (including death threats) and false complaints lodged against them by the college principle Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekara over the past two years.

 

According to the three teachers mentioned above, the Kandy police summoned them and conducted an inquiry into the intimidations and defamation case filed by the Principle of the Kingswood College in Kandy, Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekara, against them due to substantial domestic and international pressure since the AHRC had issued an urgent appeal on this case in July 2005. However, the principle became furious about this development and again made an alleged forged complaint against the three teachers to the Kandy police on 8 August 2005. The complaint argued that they attempted to assault him during the school hours. Using this complaint, the principle also expelled the teachers from Kingswood College on August 11 with the assistance of the police. Mr. R.M.D. Rathnayake was absent this day and his name was mentioned only in the complaint to the Ministry of Education by the school authority. The principal also forwarded witnesses for this complaint. One was the Deputy Principal and the other was the typist of Kingswood College who produced the statements according to the alleged previously set plan.

 

Accordingly, from the 3 September to 8 October 2005, the three teachers were summoned to appear before the Kandy Mediation Board on several occasions, while the other party was absent. At the same time the Kandy Mediation Board also summoned them to inquire about their complaint against several teachers of the Kingswood College. Subsequently on October 8, two ‘Not Settlement Certificates’ were issued to the teachers by the Mediation Board and the case was about to be produced to the courts. However, the teachers later found that after the certificates were issued, the principal Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekara was accompanied by a member of the Mediation Board and withdrew his alleged forged complaint made on August 8, in order to avoid court actions on this matter. As a result, no action has been taken by the relevant authorities regarding the ‘Not Settlement Certificates’ so far.

 

Since 11 August 2006, the three teachers are currently working at the Kandy Girls’ High School. However, the teachers also reported that their 2005 October salaries were not paid on the due date by the school administration with the allegation that they had not handed over their inventory items of the Kingswood College. However, the teachers insist that they already returned the items to the school but could not obtain the official letter from the school administration as they happened to leave the colleague in an unexpected manner on August 11. They suspect that the principal Mr. Chandrasekara had purposely planned it earlier. The teachers also reported that their annual salary increments for 2004, 2005 and 2006 have not been paid as the principal has not signed in the required applications.

 

The teachers made appeals regarding their unsecured condition to several governmental authorities such as the then Education Minister, the then President, the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, the Director of the National Schools, the Provincial Director of Education, Chairperson of the Public Service Commission, and the Minister of Human Right Affairs. However, no positive response and relief has been granted till date. For your information, the only action taken by the Ministry of Education was simply writing to the AHRC its helplessness in this regard in reply to our letter dated 5 July 2005.

 

In a desperate situation, the three teachers further made an appeal to the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 23 November 2005 via a parliamentarian, Mr. Dimuthu Bandara Abeykoon.  They have still not received a response from him thus far.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. R.M.D.Rathnayake, one of the victimized teachers who served 23 years at Kingswood College, intends to go on retirement from his new workplace, the Kandy Girls’ High School on 2 May 2007 as he is unable to bear the humiliation made to him throughout these incidents with the inaction of the government authorities. The three teachers also reported the bad attitudes of the administrative staff of their present workplace.

 

At the beginning, as the AHRC reported earlier, there were five teachers involved in this matter. They were Mr. M.U. Ranasinghe, Mr. K.D. Weerasinghe, Mr. S.A. Wickramasuriya, Mr. S.J.M. Jayasundara and Mr. R.M.D. Rathnayake. However, the latter three teachers were summoned to provide their evidence before the inquiry boards regarding the corruption relating to the said principle and they have been subjected to constant harassment in revenge (See further: UA-114-2005).

 

While the concerned three teachers at present serve at the Kandy Girls’ High School, Mr. M.U. Ranasinghe works at the Ministry of Harbour and Aviation as the Coordinating Secretary of the Deputy Minister Mr. Duminda Dissanayake. Mr. K.D. Weerasinghe is working as the Coordinating Officer for the Chief Minister of the Central Province.

 

As the three teachers mentioned above have remained in service of the Ministry of Education as teachers, they are facing problems when they try to fulfil their requirements from the Department and Ministry of Education because most of the high officials are old university acquaintances of the principle Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekara. Beside this, most of the officers have already admitted their children to Kingswood College, Kandy while others intend to admit their children there. So, it seems natural that these officials would not cooperate with the three teachers to resolve the matter, rather would create obstacles for them to fulfil their requirements at the Departmental and Ministerial level.

 

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and express your serious concern about this case. Please urge them to take immediate action to stop the alleged constant harassment against the three teachers by the concerned principle and launch investigations into the harassment and threats made to the victims.

 

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To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER